Right to Information or RTI Act as it is known is slowly but surely losing its way. Almost a decade and half after it came into force, far from promoting transparency in government functioning, the Act itself has fallen victim to obscurity and opacity, it numbers are anything to go by.
According to a recent report published by Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SSN) and the Centre for Equity Studies (CES), less than 45 per cent of applicants who sought information through the Act received the information they had sought.
Public trust is also going down on the Act, as numbers in the report show.
While 40 and 60 lakh RTI applications are filed every year, less than 3 per cent of citizens have ever filed an RTI plea, the report shows. Besides, out of the 55 per cent who do not receive the information they seek through RTI, less than 10 per cent file appeals.
The CES study shows that it takes more than a year on an average for most State Information Commissions (SICs) to dispose of complaints and appeals.
To add to the worry, Chief Information Commission (CIC) and SICs not penalising public information officers for their negligence in providing accurate information on time encourages many a bad apple.
Rising number of cases and low staff strength and reappointment of retired government officials don’t help either.
According to the study, out of the 374 information commissioners appointed in 29 SICs since the inception of RTI Act, as many as 58 per cent were former government officials. Out of the 115 CICs appointed during the same timeframe, well over 83 per cent were retired government servants – a majority of whom include IAS officials.
A combination of these factors means that RTI Act has ended up creating post-retirement jobs than providing information to the public to usher transparency.